Dave

I've found this is an area where you have to trim your sails to suit your
audience. I've argued for years, unsuccessfully, that if everyone in a
business is responsible for keeping records, then we keep records only for
business reasons. These business reasons are many and varied, and include
legal, fiscal, historical etc etc, and all staff in a business need to be
aware of these BUSINESS reasons.

I've failed because it's simply too theoretical for most folk, and in
practice, having a top level classification with only one entry is not
useful. So now I say "We keep records for two reasons - because we need
them to do business, and because someone else tells us to". Then I drill
down on the business side and sometimes even get people to admit that
there may be a bit of historical interest in what they do, But not often
(mine is an intensely pragmatic organisation).

On your specific question, just as we have some things in our disposal
schedules which we keep longer than the law requires because use patterns
show a valid operational business need, I could imagine cases where fiscal
needs differ from the strict letter of the law. Can't think of any, and we
don't have any in our schedules, but fiscal is not my area.

I do find the legal fiscal business historical breakdown useful when
explaining that retention and disposal is not always just about the letter
of the law.

Cheers

Glenn

Glenn Sanders MRMA
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Australia

These views are mine alone. They may or may not be those of any
previous or present employers or clients. I don't know. If I'd asked
and they'd agreed, I would have signed it "Harry Peck and Co and
Glenn". Or whatever. But I haven't, so I didn't.



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